Easy Does It

Before I go deeper down the wormhole of Star Trek Traveller, I'd like to tell you about a some great gaming experiences I had over the holiday vacation.

Between December 24th, and December 31st, I got the chance to run a lot of games. How many you ask? I don't even remember. A LOT.

While they all went over well, two in particular were really fun, and I can pinpoint why quite reasonably.

They were easy.

Now when I say easy, what I mean is that it required very little effort on my part to get the games set up, started, and going smoothly. The players displayed no resistance to the genres, nor to any of the details of the setting, story, or rule mechanics.

Basically, in a very zen sort of way...I wanted to run a game for my friends. I did. They wanted to play a game I was running. They did. It was fun.

Um...why aren't all games like this?

Because in order for me to run a great game, I need players who want me to run, and want to participate in, a great game. Furthermore, it would be awesome if they want a great game from me more than they want to get hung up on their various individual, er, hang ups.

Wouldn't that be grand?

The first of the two games was a DC Adventures / Mutants & Masterminds 3E game with my ex-wife, my friends Luke, and Lily, and a bunch of  'alumni' kids from the Tutoring Center. Inspired by the DC Comics Holiday Special issues over the years, the Justice League, and some of their Young Justice proteges went up against the Penguin, Sinestro, Bizarro, The Floronic Man, and the wicked warlock Wotan! All in a desperate battle to save none other than Santa Claus!

The Justice League of Earth-602!

Why 602? That's the address of the Tutoring Center, LOL

The most amazing thing about this session was how well the players took to their characters when the vast majority of them aren't comic book readers. I've noted before that this group, largely middle school and high school students of Chinese decent, have never read American comics in their lives. Their only knowledge of and exposure to these characters comes from the animated and live action shows on television. Add in the fact that only one of the adults in the group was a huge comic fan (and more well versed in Marvel mythos), and it repeatedly astounds me how well they all nail these well-established characters. 

Each person's interpretation of their character was very much influenced by the individual players' familiarity:

Green Lantern was very much the GL of Justice League Unlimited.
Aquaman was Super Friends style.
Flash and Kid Flash were a mix of the CW show and Young Justice.
Martian Manhunter was a mix of Justice League Unlimited and the Supergirl CW show.
Aqualad was totally Young Justice.
Superman was classic Silver Age, if a bit powered down (JLU also?).
Supergirl was straight out of the CW show.
Wonder Woman was Super Friends/Silver Age, complete with Invisible Jet.
Batman was pretty much Batman: The Animated Series.
Green Arrow looked classic but was really more like the Arrow TV series. 

If you are asking yourself, "Wait...were there actually 11 players?!", then I can tell you the answer is yes, most assuredly. 

The second awesome game I ran was MACROSS - Return of the Blue Dragons!

A sequel to the 1986 MACROSS - Blue Dragons campaign I ran in high school. Two of my old high school buddies, David Concepcion, and Eric Flores, were on hand to revisit my version of the Macross universe 30 years later (both in game and in real life). 

David played the son of his original character, while Eric played a bishonen character whose gender is never clear throughout the scenario. 

Numerous upgraded elements from the original campaign were added including the PCs' base of operations - The UN Spacy Odyssey II replaces the previous Odyssey, upgraded versions of the variable space fighters - the VF-3 series - and both of A.J. DeLorca's kids following in their parents footsteps and becoming Valkyrie pilots. 

The VF-3J Crusader

(Based on Shoji Kawamori's VF-3000 Crusader design)

With a thirty year gap between the last session of the original series and this one-shot, one would think it might have been hard to get back into the swing of things. Nope. Not one iota. 

For Dave and I it was really just continuing the campaign as if little time had passed out of game. As if we've been meeting to run this every month for three decades. Eric, for his part, merged into our lane with ease and contributed an interesting character with good tactical skills and even better social ones.

Snappy dialogue, fast paced combat, and a classic science fiction plot made this so much fun we were bummed when the session ended and we realized, 'Crap. This doesn't continue next week or even next month.' Sad panda.

Dave, as I have mentioned in the past, now lives in Boston. He is a working single parent and though he makes trips back to NYC one to three times a year, he doesn't always know if and when he'll be visiting. 

Eric is a GM regularly running his own campaigns.

I have work six days a week (my own Dog Walking Company and one day teaching), yet still manage to run or play twice a week (online and Friday nights), as well as once a month (my monthly group campaign, which is currently my homebrew Superheroic Medieval Fantasy setting using Ars Magica rules). 

Sigh.

Still and all, I am looking forward to more gaming like these two sessions this year. For my 40th Anniversary I want - no NEED! - to get back to gaming like I use to. I'm looking for that immersive experience with players that buy-in and embrace the setting and their characters. I can't wait to see what happens next. Additionally, I'd like to do so without the deconstructed, meta-viewpoint so prevalent in modern gaming.

Easy does it now. Baby steps. Baby steps...

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Barking Alien

MACROSS - The BLUE DRAGONS

While reminiscing and researching my past gaming ventures in order to write this Campaigns I Have Known series, I experienced a surprising revelation.

I've run A TON of Giant Robot games.

I mean, I love Giant Robots and it's not like a didn't recall running Mecha Anime influenced campaigns in the past but just how many I ran and how early I started doing it came as a bit of shock.

I've mentioned before that a friend of mine introduced me to Japanese Animation and Manga long before it became prevalent in the United States. For example, I had no idea 'Star Blazers' was really Space Battleship Yamato or 'Battle of the Planets' was Science Ninja Team Gatchaman when I first started rushing home to catch them on weekday afternoons. Luckily for me I made friends with a fellow in Junior High School (Middle School to you youngsters) who was a recent immigrant to the United States from his native Burma (now formally known as Myanmar), and he set me straight.

While living in Burma, my friend had seen the same shows translated from Japanese into Chinese. He was able to understand the programs, which were not altered in content from their original Japanese form (unlike the heavily cut, censored, and altered American versions). As I helped him with his English, he showed me VHS tapes of the original shows, sometimes in Chinese, and sometimes in Japanese (where he explained what was going on via memory).

A couple of years later, my buddy introduced me to a friend of his named Nelson who would later become one of my closest pals. He was also one of my favorite guys to game with. Nelson hooked me up with a group that met on the second Saturday of every month in New York City (I was living in Brooklyn at the time, while Nelson lived in Queens) to watch Japanese Animated TV shows and movies on VHS in a small, dark room with a bunch of fellow geeks, all of whom were older than me. There, with no dubbing or subtitles, I watched Super-Dimension Fortress Macross, Aura Battle Dunbine, Blue Gale Xabungle, Armored Trooper Votoms, and a wide variety of others.

By the time Harmony Gold purchased (and mangled) the three separate TV shows that would become the American phenomenon known as the R-word, I had already watched all of the original Macross TV Series (R-word's 'The Macross Saga'), as well as some of Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (the 'Masters' series), and Genesis Climber Mospeada (called the 'New Generation' here).

As a result, I couldn't stand R-Word. To me it was an abomination. They took three great shows (OK two, Southern Cross wasn't that great. Not bad at all but just not amazing), and mish-mashed them into one ridiculous story that clearly showed evidence of the three sections not being the same series (at least to me). I actively disliked R-Word, angry over what I felt was a terrible bastardization of the original material.

Nonetheless, in High School I ran a Macross campaign using Palladium Books' R-Word Role Playing Game. It went over very well and is remembered fondly by all involved (or so I've been told).

Here is my rundown of that campaign...

Campaigns I Have Known

Proudly Presents...

R-WORD, The Role-Playing Game

MACROSS - THE BLUE DRAGONS 

 

 The 303rd Valkyrie Squadron - Codename: Blue Dragons

Standard Valkyrie - The VF-1J

 

 

 Blue Dragons Squadron Insignia

 

System: R-Word, The Role-Playing Game - Book One: Macross (Palladium Books). (Only slightly modified. We simplified some things and made combat more Anime-like).

Circa: 1986. There were roughly two dozen short sessions. Each session was about 4-5 hours long as opposed to my standard 8-10 hours (at the time). A few sessions towards the end ran longer.

Player Base: We started with only myself as GM and one male player, both of us 16 years of age. People saw us playing and wanted to join in. We added a few here, a couple there, and ended up with about five regular players. With 'guest starts' we had as many as seven or eight for the grand finale. All were males between the ages of 16 and 18.

Characters: Rolled and generated normally using the rules of the game. All the character were Valkyrie or Destroid (Non-transformable Combat Machines) pilots of the Earth Unified Government's space military arm, U.N. Spacy.

The PCs were...

Anthony James 'AJ' / 'Ajax' DeLorca (played by David C.)

The true star of the series, AJ DeLorca is a young pilot, originally from Mars Colony, with only four or five years of combat experience prior to being assigned to the 303rd Valkyrie Squadron at Proxima Centauri.

DeLorca begins with the call sign of Blue Dragon 3 but is promoted to Blue Dragon 2 when that (NPC) pilot assumes command of the 305th Squadron - the Tiger Sharks. Later, DeLorca's mentor and good friend Shiro Kitamura (NPC) - Blue Dragon Leader - is killed in action at the prelude to The Battle of Wise and DeLorca assumes command of the squadron.

Due to a clerical error, DeLorca shares his quarters with a female roommate, Andrea Ortega (NPC). While their relationship starts platonic, helped largely by the fact that they are assigned different patrol shifts (a running gag is that they are roommates but hardly ever see each other. They converse by leaving voice messages for each other or short video recordings), the two pilots eventually develop feelings for each other. A real romance doesn't begin until Andrea's squadron, the 301st Shooting Stars, are nearly wiped out at The Battle of Galatea. Following the conflict the two admit their feelings.

Captain Keel, commander of the U.N. Spacy Carrier Odyssey (which served as the home and base of operations for the Blue Dragon and Shooting Star Squadrons) once referred to DeLorca by the nickname 'Ajax' when attempting to confuse the enemy who had hacked into the U.N.Spacy's communications channel.

DeLorca is a down-to-Earth, easy going fellow who does what he does to keep Humanity safe. DeLorca has no love of war or fighting, feeling that being a combat pilot is a necessary evil. He is deeply effected by the deaths of his allies and often his enemies.

In the series finale he vows to quit the U.N. Spacy, settle down somewhere with Ortega if she'll join him, and leave all the conflict behind. They are shown living a pastoral life, married, with two kids, possibly on Earth or an Earth-like colony.

DeLorca begins the game piloting a VF-1A, but is soon upgraded to a VF-1J. During major conflicts he uses the Strike Valkyrie configuration with one Missile Pod and a Dual Barreled Rail Gun (in our version if this configuration has two Missile Pods it is instead referred to as a 'Super Valkyrie' instead of a Strike Valkyrie. This is based on differences between the Macross TV Series and the film version 'Do You Remember Love?').

One of my favorite PC characters ever, played with depth, honestly, and incredible nuance by my good pal David C.  

Raymond 'Raygun' Rogers (played by Will C.)

Raymond Rogers replaced AJ DeLorca as Blue Dragon 2 once DeLorca was made Blue Dragon Leader.

Rogers is from Earth and uses a lot of pilot jargon, colloquialisms, and slang. His is a bit of a hot shot, in contrast to the more subdued DeLorca. Rogers is a bit of a maverick as well, getting himself, and his team in trouble more than a few times. He proves himself a team player and a true hero many times over at the Battle of Wise however.

Rogers starts out with a VF-1J, and prefers to use the Super Valkyrie configuration, often requesting Booster Rockets be added for extra speed. He favors laser weapons, earning him the nickname 'Raygun'.

In the series finale and epilogue he is shown as a Test Pilot for the new VF-3.

Marcus 'Wild Cat' Montoya (played by Pete H.)

Marcus Montoya (originally an NPC) was formally assigned to the Blue Dragon Squadron and served with distinction as Blue Dragon 2 until he is given command of the 305th Tiger Sharks Squadron. As Tiger Shark Leader, we don't see him in the campaign after the third or fourth session. Towards the end of the campaign, around three or four sessions from the end, he is used as a PC and his squadron takes part in the Battle of Wise.

Originally using a VF-1J, Montoya pilots a VF-1S Strike Valkyrie when he reappears just prior to the Battle of Wise. He has the rank of Commander (as does DeLorca at the time), and is referred to by many of the NPCs as 'Wild Cat' Montoya.

Montoya is a self-assured, almost cocky fellow with nerves of steel. He and his squadron are known for aggressive flying and going on the offensive early in a conflict.

Montoya is killed in the Battle of Wise when he pilots his badly damaged fighter directly into the command center of the enemy's main battle cruiser.

Yoshi 'Yo-yo' Yokoyama (played by Michael M.)

A member of the Shooting Stars Squadron until the Battle of Galatea. One of the squad's two surviving members (Andrea Ortega being the other), Yokoyama was transferred to the Blue Dragons where he took the call sign of Blue Dragon 5.

Yokoyama was from Earth and came from a long line of Japanese military men. Very shy, a bit socially awkward, and very much a 'tech geek', Yoshi was far more comfortable around Valkyries and Destroids then people (especially women). His mechanical prowess served him well however and he was the squad's go to engineer and repair guru.

Yokoyama pilots a VF-1A throughout the series. He operates his Valkyrie in Armored Valkyrie mode at least twice (most notably at the Battle of Wise).

In the Battle of Wise, Yokoyama is badly wounded trying to save a fellow pilot who is outnumbered. We see him in the epilogue in a wheelchair, in charge of the development team that produced the VF-3 (it's implied that it's his design).


Unfortunately, these are the only characters my friends and I can distinctly remember. There was a Destroid Pilot who operated a HWR-00-Mk. II Monster. My friend Nelson (mentioned above) was a member of the Tiger Sharks who piloted a VF-1J custom configuration Valkyrie called the 'Gabriel' (based on a picture of said Valkyrie in a Japanese model magazine). One player, I think, was a Micronized Zentradi.

Sadly that's all I can recall.

U.N. Spacy Valkyrie Pilot Flight Suit

Blue Dragons Variant

Synopsis: Set sometime after the end of the original Macross TV Series (maybe three years later? I forget), our story focuses on a military outpost space station in the Proxima Centauri system called Galatea. In addition to being the U.N. Spacy command center in the area from Alpha Centauri to Wise 1049−5319 (now known as Luhman 16), Galatea is on a  major trade route leading to new colonial efforts in the regions beyond the 6 light year mark. A trade route recently plagued by attacks from pirates and Zentradi renegades.

What begins as a series of short, episodic adventures, heavy on the character development and light on any real overarching plot, eventually turns into a massive conspiracy laden epic filled with brutal battles, government and corporate politics, romance, and the horrors of war.

A corporation with questionable policies and ethics is denied a permit to establish deep space mining and industrial colonies. In response, they secretly back pirates and Zentradi soldiers who do not recognize the Earth-Zentradi Peace Treaty. Their plan is to disrupt trade and colonization in the region and then appear to be the only ones who can negotiate an end to the problem.

As the renegades and pirates prey on the evil corporation's competitors, the Zentradi leader in charge of the attacks plans to turn on his patron and establish himself as an independent warlord of his own stellar nation.

Our team is eventually charged with uncovering proof of what was really going on, while simultaneously fighting the hostile forces and protecting civilian and military convoys. This all eventually leads to a huge showdown between the Zentradi/pirate fleet and the combined might of three Squadrons of UN Spacy Valkyries, two carriers, and a loose array of allied civilian ships.

Appendix N: Super Dimension Macross (TV Series), Macross The Movie - Do You Remember Love?, Blade Runner (some of the technology, corporate intrigue, and 'Outer Colonies' material was inspired by the film), and numerous movies about World War II fighter plane combat such as Midway (1976).

Bonus Features: I was very much a jerk about keeping things strictly adherent to the Japanese version of Macross and not the American R-Word version. PCs lost out on Experience Points if their player used the Western names of things for example.

In one instance there was an alert and one pilot announced he was heading for his Veritech, instead of saying Valkyrie. "Very tech? I don't know what you mean." said the Flight Deck Coordinator. The rest of the team made it to their VALKYRIEs while NPCs tried to help the first guy find this very tech thing he was looking for.

Yeah, I know. I can be a right ornery purist about such things.

Still in all it was a great campaign and I've often been tempted to run another Macross campaign, set sometime in the updated and furthered timeline established over the years by subsequent Japanese TV series and OVAs.

Maybe some day.

Clear skies everyone,

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Barking Alien